Fashion, Beauty, Food & Drink, Travel, Arts & Culture, & Good Living

June 21, 2014October 4, 2017

The Replacement

The newbie!

I am not a woman who gets excited at the prospect of owning a significant amount of shoes. I have never desired to own Louboutin, Chanel, or other designer heels, and I don’t care to go on weekly shoe shopping jaunts. My things are food, books, music, blusher, and lipstick. I buy clothes to last and I add as needed (for the love of fashion and style and function). I am very particular about what I put on my feet. When you have foot issues, as I do, you just have to be.

As a kid, I was tall and clumsy. My height plus the dimensions of the table turned out to be not so much of a good thing. My foot went through that glass table so fast and firm that it shattered around my feet (yes, it looked as bad as you might be imagining it). It was a seriously chaotic scene, complete with my staring down below in shock and my mom screaming in horror and an experience that I would not recommend to anyone. I am seriously lucky that I am able to walk on my own two feet. Owners of glass coffee tables, beware…

The table left me with two jagged scars on the sides of my left feet, a slight limp, and two feet prone to calluses on the sides and soles (which means I have to be particular about foot care – more on that later). So when I see a shoe that I like, I wear them over and over and over until they fall apart. I like sandals with closed backs (for support and so I can put an insert in as needed), and I like them to have a sole that feels solid. Flimsy flip-flops or sky-high heels are never going to be OK for me.

My previous pair of sandals, which, as you will see down below, I really did wear down to the bitter end, gave me four or five years of service. All things considered, they held up really well. In order to keep them together, I had sewed the piece of the strap at the front, which had slipped out from the sole of the feet, and I left the back alone:

Needle and thread is all you need!

Sewed the brand name cloth thing-y they attack over soles too!

Didn’t even know how to begin fixing the back…

But when it got to the point that I worried about whether my shoes would walk me safely back home, I knew it was time to replace them. Meet my new workhorse:

I found them at my local Payless Shoe Source for a mere $21.97. They feel even sturdier than the other ones, and I am confident that I will get a good amount of use out of them. If you’re interested, Payless is currently having a sale on all sandals (I bought mine yesterday!). These ones are a nice neutral colour that I’m happy to wear the heck out of.